Surgical iridectomy has been used to advantage in treatment of a variety of conditions in the human eye. It has been employed rather widely in selected cases of glaucoma, in conjunction with removal of the cataractous lens and for the purpose of making artificial pupils. The prolonged or permanent gain from such a procedure has been explained by the assumption, based largely on clinical observation, that under its usual conditions the iris tissue does not show evidence of ability to regenerate, and, further, that under aseptic conditions the iris in its normal environment does not appear to produce connective tissue with which to form a scar or to fill in a surgically made defect in the iris.

Collins and Mayou1 expressed the belief that aseptic wounds of the iris, such as are made in a surgical iridectomy showed no tendency to formation of scar tissue and that, except for